Of course: Reuters cropping flotilla passengers’ weapons out of photos; Update: LGF broke the story

posted at 7:19 pm on June 7, 2010 by Allahpundit

You may remember during the second Lebanese war Reuters was caught making news pictures look worse than they were with a little touch of Photo Shop…

Reuters is now doctoring its pictures from the violence aboard the Guerrilla Flotilla. For example, this picture appeared in a Turkish Newspaper. The guy on the ground in green is one of the Israeli commandos. Notice the red circle I added. It shows one of the terrorists on the flotilla boat holding a knife…

Now here is the same picture as first released by Reuters. Notice that they cropped out the the terrorist’s knife?

Follow the link and check out Sammy Benoit’s examples. And yes, that’s “examples,” as in plural: Just like when we went through this the first time with Reuters, it’s not a one-off mistake. The most depressing part is that one of the uncropped photos that Sammy used comes from Hurriyet, which is a Turkish newspaper, thus proving that even in Erdogan’s own backyard you’re apt to get a fairer take on what happened on the flotilla than from certain U.S. outfits.

The Daily Mail has more flotilla pics, including one of an IDF soldier bleeding heavily from the head after being attacked. And no wonder: The IDF’s verified that jihadis linked to Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas itself were aboard. As for our friends the Turks, who’ve allegedly been acting out of love for the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority is now sufficiently alarmed by their Hamas boosterism that they’re venting to the Jerusalem Post about it. Your exit quotation, courtesy of our NATO partner in peace:

Asked about those claims at a joint news conference with Syria President Bashar al-Assad Monday, Mr. Erdogan said of Israel: “They lie like a lie-making machine, they always do it.” He also described Hamas as “resistance fighters,” and said Hamas, which rules Gaza, had agreed for Ankara to mediate in talks with its rival Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Mr. Assad was in Istanbul for a Eurasian summit that starts Tuesday. Iran President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are also due to attend.

Mr. Erdogan continued to raise the temperature of Turkey’s dispute with Israel over the weekend. In a speech in Bursa, a city about 80 kilometers south of Istanbul, Mr. Erdogan said the world now perceives “the swastika and the Star of David together.”

Update (6/8): It seems I’m “scum,” a “thief,” and a “dishonest dirtbag” because I thought Sammy Benoit had found the initial photo of Reuters cropping out weapons. Turns out it was Charles Johnson at LGF who broke the story; Sammy’s post only mentioned him in connection with the second photo. So here’s the official correction from a scummy dirtbag thief.